NEW DELHI, Apr 13: The Centre on Tuesday said the second wave of Covid-19 has crossed the previous highest surge and the upward trend of the infections was a cause of concern.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that the trend in India’s Covid-19 cases trajectory in the second wave was “worrying.”
“We have 89.51% people who have been cured, 1.25% deaths and 9.24% active cases. If we look at new cases, we will find that the previous highest surge has already been crossed and the trend is going upward. That is a cause for worry,” Bhushan said at a media conference.
“There are currently 12, 64,698 active COVID cases, 1,71,058 deaths and 1,22,53,697 have been cured. The trend is going upwards in terms of new COVID -19 cases. We have crossed the surge last year. Daily deaths are also seeing an upward trend.
Testing, tracking, treating, vaccinating and following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour is the way forward,” Bhushan said.
The top health ministry official added that the daily Covid-19 deaths recorded in the country are registering an increasing trend but is yet to cross the highest toll seen during India’s first wave last year.
“However, the previous surge’s highest point was 1114 and presently we have reported 879 deaths,” Bhushan said.
Maharashtra recorded the maximum casualties of 258 on Monday. Chhattisgarh followed with 107 new deaths while Uttar Pradesh and Delhi registered 72 new casualties each.
From 63% of India’s cases between March 15 and 21, Maharashtra’s share in national casualty has come down to 42 per cent between April 5 and 11 as shares of other states have gone up. In the same period, Chhattisgarh’s share increased from 3% to 8%, and U.P.’s share increased from 1% to 7%. Share of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka remained stable in the range of 3% to 5%. Kerala’s share has been decreasing consistently since February. Between February 15 and 21, Kerala’s share in India’s cases was 34%. However, between April 5 and 11, the State’s share reduced to 3%, data released by the union health ministry point out.
About the problem of shortage of Remdesivir injection, the NITI Ayog member Dr V K Paul pointed out that Remdesivir was an investigational drug with specified use. “This shouldn’t be used in home setting. This is not an over the counter drug. Mask is the only way forward. COVID appropriate behaviour is a must. This is needed to stop the growing COVID-19 surge. The situation is very serious now,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has recommended a “pause” in administration of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of potentially dangerous blood clots.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was investigating clots in six women in the days after vaccination, in combination with reduced platelet counts. More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S.
(Manas Dasgupta)